Well, the Tamiya rubber rims and tyres arrived yesterday, so I headed out to my home track for a bit of a play this evening. Also took the new Spice foams for some comparative testing.
Started out on my familiar Tamiya B foamies to get a feel for the grip, which tends to vary from week to week due to weather/dust etc.
Next, I threw on the Spice set and was most impressed. Better grip than the B's and I'd say at least half a second quicker per lap. Car seemed very balanced and was fun to drive.
Finally, put on the new Tamiya rubber set and spun out at the first corner
No real preparation, no warmth in them, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Took it easy for a little while and I was also impressed with how responsive they were - grip was generally not bad, but quite unforgiving. Both sets of foams were much more progressive when adhesion was lost. The rubber tyres felt very direct and I ended up turning the steering down a little to compensate.
Overall, however, they weren't as quick as either of the foam tyres, but I suspect that this will be only one data point. They're not scrubbed in yet and the compound seems quite hard, so may suit a warmer track. Not that this evening was cold, but not as warm as our Sunday daytime meets.
I look forward to seeing some more variety in the compounds now that the rims are out.
Phil.